


We Are Pioneers

by mandaestella



Series: I'll Go Anywhere, Pioneer [1]
Category: Alexbelle
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, favorite friendship ever, i cannot get enough of alex/lev/maddie ot3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 22:05:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1320850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandaestella/pseuds/mandaestella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’ve been a trio for longer than any of them can remember - their mothers were best friends before they were even a thought. But the last few months haven’t been easy. The only thing Madeline can even think about is getting into her first-pick college and nothing is going to stand in her way. Leven is a little lost - college was never in the cards for her, and now that it’s all anyone can talk about she is starting to doubt herself more than she’ll admit. And Alex… well, Alex is about to break the bro code and fall for his best friend’s little sister. The Golden Trio only has a few months left together to figure out how they’re going to handle being apart, and it comes with a lot of late-night pranks, a little jealousy, and more than their fair share of sneaking around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Pioneers

**Author's Note:**

> Birthday fic for my baby Hannah, although I am late as usual. You are just incredibly thoughtful and brilliant and basically the greatest person I know, and no words can describe how blessed I am to have you as my best friend. I love you and I hope you have the best year ever!

_Where are we going, oh I don’t know_

_But still I’ve gotta go_

_And what will become of us, oh I don’t care_

_All I know is I’ll go anywhere_

_Pioneer_

* * *

It had always been the three of them, for longer than any of them could remember. Their mothers had been best friends before they were even a thought. And they would be together forever – they were sure of it.

Forever no matter what – that’s what Madeline always said.

No matter what.

When Leven was being picked on in kindergarten and Madeline had beat the hell out of the little boy who was doing it to her, coming out of the fight in better shape than him even though she was a tiny five-year-old.

When Alex fell off his bike at Leven’s tenth birthday party and the two of them had accompanied him to the hospital, bringing the cake with them and saving him a piece to eat when the doctors got done setting his arm.

When Maddie got really sick in seventh grade, and Alex and Leven spent every day in her room helping her with her homework and telling her what she had missed.

When Alex had started dating that girl when they were thirteen, and Maddie and Leven spent weeks trying to convince him to break up with her because she was super mean to Maddie in the bathroom during lunch.

When Alex actually did it because his two best friends meant more to him than any girl ever would.

And forever no matter what extended to senior year – when Maddie was spending every spare moment locked in her room studying, determined to get into Yale whether it was going to kill her or not; when Leven sat around looking up pictures of California on the computer, positive that she could make it out there, no matter what people said; when Alex went through more than his fair share of girls, realizing that he didn’t really like any of them and all he wanted to do was get out of this town where there was nothing there for him anymore.

* * *

“Madeline, can I please copy your trig homework? This is the last time I swear.”

Madeline looked up as Alex pushed his way into the senior lounge, which was always ridiculously packed with people before Homeroom began. He elbowed through one last group of girls before plopping himself down at Madeline’s table, where she had her history notes in front of her and was trying to desperately to concentrate.

“You said that last week, Alex.”

“Yes, but I really mean it this time.”

Madeline sighed, sliding her trig notebook over to Alex. He grabbed it, quickly scribbling down all of Madeline’s hard work so he could pass it off as his own. But she didn’t mind. She never minded.

“Where’s Leven?” he asked as he copied, not even looking up from Madeline’s notebook.

“Late as usual.”

“Don’t be a twat.” Leven breezed into the room, planting kisses on her two best friends’ cheeks and settling herself cross-legged on the couch next to Alex. “I am never late, you’re just always freakishly early. Ooh, is that the trig homework? Maddie, can I please?” Madeline shot her a look. “Please, please, please?”

“Fine. But remind me why I keep you two around?”

“Because you love us,” Alex stated matter-of-factly, pushing Madeline’s homework closer to Leven so she could get in on the copying.

“And because we keep you fun. If it wasn’t for us, you would just sit home studying all the time.” 

“I’ve been telling you guys since we were five – it’s Yale or it’s nothing.”

“Yes, and the fact that you knew that when we were five is what scares us, love.”

“I’m trying to study, and you two need to get that done before first block, so can you please shut up for two seconds? I am begging you.”

Alex and Leven made faces at Madeline and then at each other, but they kept their mouths shut while Madeline furiously highlighted and muttered to herself. She was kind of intense sometimes, but they were proud of her. They would always be proud of her, even when she left them and moved halfway across the country to Connecticut. And until then, they would keep taking the piss out of her whenever they could. Because that’s what best friends did.

Leven and Alex, on the other hand, were not going to Yale. In fact, Leven probably wasn’t going to college at all. She had her heart set on California, where she could model and act and finally get out of this tiny little town where nothing ever happened. And Alex got a football scholarship – actually, he got quite a few – which would land him in the South for the next four years. Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Florida, Texas, Clemson, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee – the big schools wanted him, and he hadn’t decided where he wanted to go yet, but he had more options than the two girls combined.

So, all in all, it didn’t matter whether he missed a couple of trig assignments or not, except for the fact that Mama Ludwig would kill him.

“Thank you, Mads,” Alex said, pushing her notebook back across the table and standing up, kissing her on the forehead and grabbing his trig book. “Lev, let’s go. You know what Mr. Neals is gonna say if we’re late again.”

“He won’t say anything. He loves me.”

“Exactly, he loves you. He’ll give me detention. Is that what you want?”

“I mean… I wouldn’t get detention so…”

“I’m your ride home.”

“Oh shit, I forgot. Yeah, no way in hell we’re being late, I am not walking again!”

Madeline smirked as she listened to her friends bicker – it was a pretty normal conversation for Alex and Leven. The two of them were almost always at each other’s throats. “Come on, guys.” She stood up, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and pushing her friends out of the common room, which was starting to clear out the closer it got to first bell.

Between stopping at their lockers and the ladies’ room so Leven could make sure she looked better than all of the other girls and dropping Madeline off at the history room, telling her she would ace her government test and not to freak out so much, Alex and Leven were barely on time to trig, slipping in the door and sitting down as quietly as they could, catching a warning look from Mr. Neals.

“You two had better have your homework this time,” he warned, and frankly Alex and Leven were lucky he just left it at that.

“Got it right here!” Alex waved his homework in the air like a flag as he settled himself in his seat, Leven stifling her laugh behind him. “I’m kind of hurt that you have so little faith in me, Mr. Neals.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Neals turned to his desk, checking off the latecomers on his attendance sheet. “Well, I’m sure my faith will improve once you turn in even one of the three missing assignments that you have out right now, Mr. Ludwig.”

“I will get right on that.”

They didn’t see each other again until lunch where they met up with Madeline, who was already sitting at their usual table by one of the big, windowed walls. She didn’t even notice the two of them walk up until they dropped their backpacks on the table with a bang. “What is that, Mads?”

She sighed heavily, tying her hair up into a bun on the top of her head. “It’s my stupid French paper. I got an A minus on it, and I’m trying to figure out where I can get the points back.”

“An A minus.” Alex ripped it out of her hand, holding it over his head as she jumped up to try to grab it back. “You’re mad about an A minus.”

“Alex! Give it!”

“You need to calm down, Mads. I think I see a gray hair.” He poked the top of Madeline’s head, only serving to make her even tenser.

“Give me my paper this second, Alexander.”

“Or what?”

Leven reached across the table, grabbing a piece of grilled chicken from Madeline’s salad, and then just pulling the entire thing towards her. “God, this is good.”

“Leven!” Madeline shrieked as she saw what her friend was doing. “What is wrong with you two?”

“Christ on a cracker.” Alex held Madeline at arm’s length, waiting for her to calm down. “We are definitely going out tonight because you need to calm down before you give yourself an aneurysm or a hernia or something.”

"Go where?” Madeline narrowed her eyes and folded her arms, giving Alex the look she only brought out when she was really, really, really mad.

“There’s that party at Liam’s,” Leven said, her mouth full of Madeline’s lunch. “We could probably get in there.”

“Liam?”

“Liam Hemsworth. That hockey player whose parents always go out of town on the weekends during the spring. That’s why he gets to have parties all the time.”

“Leven, in what universe have we ever been invited to one of Liam Hemsworth’s parties? That’s like football players and cheerleaders and shit.”

“Hey!” Alex protested, finally handing Madeline her French paper. She snatched it out of his hand, pinching him in the side and stalking back to her seat. “I’m a football player!”

“Yeah, but you’re not like… one of them. You’re cool, Alex.”

“Thanks, I think so too.”

“Anyways,” Leven continued, rolling her eyes, “I’m sure we could get in there now that I’m friends with Josh.”

“You’re friends with Josh?” Alex snickered, sitting down and leaning back in his chair so only two of the legs were on the ground.

“Yes!” Leven glared at him, kicking the chair out from under him. “I mean, we talked like that one time in gym, so…”

“Oh yeah, you guys are best friends.”

“Well, I think that technically makes me the most popular out of all three of us, so you had better not complain or I won’t bring you to the party.”

“You’re the most popular? I play football!”

“Playing football does not make you popular! You just run around on a field for an hour hitting each other!”

“Oh my God, if I say I’ll go to the party, will that make you two shut up?”

That quieted Alex and Leven down right away, as they turned to stare at Madeline. “Wait, you’re saying you’ll actually go?”

“If it makes you two shut your mouths, yeah. I’d pretty much do anything at this point.”

“Yes!” Alex reached across the table to high-five Leven. “Finally!”

“As long as,” Madeline raised her voice, “as long as you promise you will not get drunk this time. Because last time was just awful.”

“I promise.” Alex wrinkled his nose at her. “I promise I will not get drunk.”

* * *

Alex was really drunk.

“Man, whiskey is great.” He had his eyes closed, head against the back of Liam Hemsworth’s parents’ couch, Madeline on one side and Leven on the other. “Shoes are stupid, don’t you think shoes are stupid.”

“Really stupid,” Leven mumbled, resting her head against Josh Hutcherson’s shoulder – wait, where did Josh come from? He wasn’t part of Madeline and Leven and Alex.

“I’m just going to take them off,” Alex said, rubbing his shoes against the carpet. “Free all ankles.” He struggled with them for a few seconds, pouting. “Shoes are so stupid. These shoes are really suckish.”

“Suckish,” Leven giggled. “You said suckish.”

Madeline finally reached down, grabbing Alex’s leg and hauling it towards her, untying his shoelaces. Oh, right. Alex had kind of forgotten about shoelaces. “You love me, Maddie,” he slurred against her shoulder. “Don’t you love me?”

He hated shoelaces and he hated shoes. But he loved whiskey and Madeline.

“Do we have more whiskey?”

“You drank it all,” Madeline told him, and he frowned at her.

"All of it?”

“All of it. All the whiskey in the entire world.”

“Weren’t we playing cards?” Alex threw his arm around Madeline’s neck, pulling her close and almost spilling her drink all over the front of her shirt.

“Like two hours ago, we were. I was winning.”

“You win at everything, Mads.” Leven was taking off her shoes with a lot more ease than Alex had. Except she had three feet. Had she always had three feet? That seemed like it would be kind of a nuisance.

“You have three feet,” Alex told her, and Josh giggled. “Where did the other one come from?”

“I keep it as a spare,” she said.

“You’re pretty, Lev. You’re so pretty. But I like it when you put your hair up. You should put it up. It makes you prettier.”

“She’s already prettier,” Madeline chimed in. “And you are absolutely wasted.”

“I’m not wasted. You’re wasted.”

“I’m at like a one, maybe a two. You are at a ten.”

“I am a ten, thank you for saying so. You’re a ten too. And Leven is a ten.” Ten plus ten plus ten equals… Alex couldn’t come up with the answer at the moment. He was great at math, wasn’t he? He used to be great at math. In elementary school. When he wasn’t drinking. He didn’t drink in elementary school. But he did drink now, and whiskey is good.

“Oh, look!” He gestured wildly across the crowded living room, definitely spilling Madeline’s drink this time. Oh, sad. What a waste of good alcohol. Wasting alcohol should be a crime. Wasting good alcohol anyways, and Liam definitely had good alcohol. What was he talking about? Oh. “Isn’t that your sister?”

“Where?” Madeline squinted, trying to see across the dark, slightly smoky, incredibly packed room.

“Right there.” Alex pointed vaguely towards the group of girls by the staircase. There were a few groups of girls. Like three. Was that the alcohol talking? Only one way to find out. “Isabelle!” he screeched, trying to make himself heard over the pounding music.

“Isabelle!” Leven joined in, even though she had her eyes closed and probably had no idea why she was yelling Madeline’s younger sister’s name. “Isabelle!”

The two of them kept screaming until Isabelle extricated herself from her friends, weaving through the room and squeezing onto the couch between Madeline and Alex. This couch is really not big enough for all these people, Alex thought. It really is a lot of people. Where did Josh come from again?

“Hello,” Isabelle chirped, snuggling into Madeline’s side and looking up at Alex with wide eyes. “Have you been here long?”

“Look at Alex,” Madeline smirked. “Does it look like we’ve been here long?”

“Either you’ve been here long, like since before dinosaurs roamed the earth, or he works really fast.”

Alex leaned closer, smelling apples and cinnamon or something that really smelled like Christmas. Like when he woke up on Christmas morning when he was five and his mom made Santa pancakes and let them eat cookies for breakfast. Oh God, he could go for some pancakes right now. And what was that smell? It had to be Isabelle – Alex definitely knew what Madeline smelled like after eighteen years, and although it was nice it wasn’t Christmas. Why didn’t Madeline smell like Christmas? Christmas was a nice smell. Maybe he should talk to her about that.

“Madeline, you need to smell like Christmas. Isabelle smells like Christmas.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you like Christmas, Madeline? You know, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.”

“What is wrong with him?” Isabelle giggled to Madeline, putting her hand on Alex’s knee. It was tiny and warm and the Christmas smell was getting even stronger.

“Do you think Liam has gingerbread?”

“I highly doubt it.” Madeline laughed.

“Can you ask him?”

Alex glared at her as Leven started to sing Santa Clause Is Coming To Town behind him. “I cannot just ask him if he has gingerbread. You’re a girl and you’re pretty, so you should ask him. Cause if he doesn’t have gingerbread, he would probably make you some.”

“Liam Hemsworth is not going to make me gingerbread.”

“Liam!” Alex screeched out. “Liam!”

“—better not shout, better not cry—”

“Liam Hemsworth, Madeline Fuhrman would like you to make her some gingerbread!”

“—better not pout, I’m telling you why—”

“We are requesting some gingerbread!”

“—SANTA CLAUSE IS COMING TO TOWN!”

“Okay, it is definitely time to go.” Madeline stood up, pulling her sister up with her. “Belle, can you please help me?”

“Sure, sure.” Isabelle looked over toward her friends who were pushing their way onto the dance floor, which was just the dining room without the big oak table, and then back at Alex, who was staring at her intently. She was really pretty, Madeline’s sister was. She had really long hair, and it was dark like Madeline’s but wavy like Leven’s, and it was so pretty. It looked like chocolate. And she was really tiny, like she could fit right under Alex’s arm. “Yeah, I can help.”

“Up and at ‘em, Lev!” Madeline stepped over Alex’s legs, extricating Leven from Josh’s side. “Time to go home.”

“Home?” Leven leaned heavily on Madeline, practically knocking her over. “I’m not sure what direction that is in right now.”

Madeline laughed, and Alex was quickly struck by the thought, even in his drunken haze, that she was handling this incredibly well. Normally she got really mad when Alex and Leven got so drunk, especially when she was so tense like she had been today. But she was happy. Why was she so happy? It wasn’t because of Alex. Alex didn’t really make Madeline happy. Not when he was drunk.

“Don’t worry, Lev, I know where you live.”

"Alex?”

Isabelle was talking, he could hear her talking, but he didn’t know where she was. Maybe he was imagining it. But then he heard it again, and he felt her tug on his elbow. “What are you doing down there?”

Isabelle laughed, and it sounded like bells or a puppy barking or something really cute. Not like a puppy. When did Alex stand up? “We’re gonna go, okay?”

“Okay.” Alex let Isabelle take his arm, guiding him out of the house. As she was pushing him along, he noticed how many people said hi to Isabelle. Which was weird, cause she was just a sophomore. Well, not just a sophomore, not in a bad way. But it was only her second year at the high school… how did this many people know her? Oh, right. Madeline. Everybody knew Madeline. So everybody knew Isabelle. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going home,” Isabelle said as they finally made it outside.

“To your home?”

“To your home.” Isabelle laughed again.

“You know where I live? Are you like a stalker?”

“Well, I’m friends with Natalie, so—”

“Natalie is my sister.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

Alex turned around to look for Madeline and Leven. “And you are Maddie’s sister. So it’s like we’re brother and sister.”

Isabelle didn’t answer, or at least she didn’t have a chance to say anything before Alex took a massive digger, tripping on something in the grass or maybe it was just nothing at all and he was really drunk. “Oh, shit,” he said, staring up at the sky. There were a lot of stars up there, and it looked like they were all swirling around. Did stars normally swirl around like that? Or maybe Alex was the one who was swirling. “I don’t think I can get up.”

“That’s okay.” Isabelle dropped down onto the grass. “I can sit down here with you. I’m not sure where my sister and Leven are.”

“They’re stuck inside the party. It’s like a swirling vortex of popular kids and people we hate. Or maybe Leven had to pee. She has to pee a lot.”

“Oh, does she.”

“When we’re at her house, she hogs the bathroom. I never get to use it, even when I really need to. I can’t wait until I get my own place, so I can pee with absolute freedom whenever I want.”

“Freedom of pee.”

“Hey.” Alex rolled over towards where she was sitting, and from where he was lying he could only see her back and the lit-up house behind her. He forgot what he was going to say when Isabelle gathered her hair up behind her. “Oh my God, is that a tattoo?”

Isabelle dropped her hair down over her back quickly, her hand flying up to cover the back of her neck. “Um… it might be.”

“Let me see!” Alex reached out but he couldn’t reach Isabelle’s neck and he definitely couldn’t sit up because she was really pretty and he really didn’t want to throw up all over her. “Come on, Isabelle. You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”

“It’s… it’s nothing. It’s stupid.”

“Please, Isabelle?” He widened his eyes at her. Girls always told him they loved his eyes, so maybe she would think that too and maybe she would listen to him.

“Fine, fine.” She lifted her hair up again, falling back onto her elbows so they were closer together.

“It’s that thing…” Alex lifted his hand up, tracing the dark ink on her back. “That thing in Paris that I swear I really do know the name of, but it is escaping me right now.”

“The Eiffel Tower.” Isabelle smiled at him, her eyes bright in the dark. “It’s just cause I want to travel, and I want to get out of here, and the second I do this is the first thing I’m going to see.”

“It’s pretty. I like it.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re really pretty.”

“You’re really drunk.”

“That doesn’t change facts, little Fuhrman.”

“Well now you have to show me yours.”

Alex pulled his shirt up to his chin, the grass tickling his back. Hopefully it was grass, and not like ants or worms or something. It was March so there were probably lots of worms out. But there were probably no worms on Liam Hemsworth’s lawn, unless they were really rich worms. He was startled out of his thoughts by the feeling of Isabelle’s fingers warm on his chest.

“It’s… gorgeous.”

“You think?” Alex beamed down in pride. He loved his tattoo. He’d gotten it the day he turned eighteen. It was a big bird across his chest that looked like it was flying, because sometimes Alex wanted to just fly away. It was like Isabelle’s Eiffel Tower except birds weren’t Eiffel Towers, but it meant the same thing or at least it did in Alex’s head. And birds always went back to where they were from, so Alex had the tattoo artist put Madeline and Leven’s names in tiny script beneath the bird’s wings. “Well, I’m glad you like it.”

“You got my sister’s name tattooed on you.” Isabelle touched it lightly. “I cannot believe that.”

“She’s my person,” Alex said matter-of-factly.

“That’s really nice.” Isabelle kept her hand on Alex's chest, leaning down so that her hair brushed his face. And she still smelled like Christmas, and her eyes were all starry and they looked like all the stars that were swirling around above them, and her hair was so soft, and Alex wanted to kiss her, and he could do it, he could just kiss her because she was here and she was pretty and she was so nice and she liked his tattoo. But even now, even in his cloud of stupor, something in the back of his mind was screaming that he shouldn’t do that.

She was Madeline’s sister. And Madeline was his person. So he didn’t do it.

Instead he sat up and puked all over Liam Hemsworth’s grass.

* * *

It felt like a tiny person was in Alex’s head, trying to beat its way out with a hammer or a really dull knife.

“We need to talk.”

Oh, this was not good. “Mom, can you please just—”

She yanked open his window shades, flooding the room with light and intensifying his headache even more, which he honestly didn’t think was possible. “Alexander, Madeline is here, and we need to talk, so get up.”

Alex tried to sit up, closing his eyes against the blinding light as tight as he could. He didn’t remember getting home, he didn’t remember getting his clothes off, he didn’t remember getting into bed. He really didn’t remember anything past Isabelle and tattoos and – oh, God, did he throw up on her?

“Do you know how loud you were last night?” his mom snapped. “You woke up your sisters, you woke up your father and me, and you were supposed to help me do the shopping today, do you remember that?”

“Mom, I—”

“Listen here, Alexander. You know I let you go out and drink even though you’re still in high school, and you know that I trust you to make good decisions and normally you do, but you cannot come in here the way you were last night. You cannot let your sisters see you like that, and you cannot be that disrespectful to your dad and me.”

“Can I have a trashcan please?”

His mom dragged the trashcan closer to his bed, wrinkling his nose as he bent over it. He could barely hear her tell Madeline to come on in until she was actually standing next to his bed.

“Did you get as piss drunk as he did last night?”

“Oh no, Mama Ludwig,” she said, sounding way too cheerful for the morning after a party. “I had to get up early to do something with my sister.”

“Did you hear that, Alex?” His mom raised her voice. “She had to get up early to do something with her sister! And I bet Elina didn’t have to clean up vomit at four in the morning.”

“Yes, Mom, I get it,” he said hoarsely, pushing the trash can away and falling back down against the pillows. “I will make it up to you, and I will do something with Nat and Soph later, okay? I promise.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

She gave him a look as she left the room, but he knew she felt bad for him, even thought it was entirely his fault.

“How ya doin’?” Madeline kicked her Uggs off, crawling into bed next to Alex.

"Great,” he groaned, grabbing a Gatorade bottle off his nightstand and drinking half of it down in one gulp. “Why didn’t you stop me last night?

“Oh, I tried!” She punched him in the shoulder lightly, tracing her hand over her name on his chest, just like her sister had the night before. Which was a whole other situation Alex needed to figure out as soon as he didn’t feel like death. “Between you and Leven trying to start strip poker, and all of the Christmas carols, and screaming about gingerbread and how much you hated your shoes and how pretty everyone was… we were lucky to get out of there without you being beaten up by one of the popular kids.”

“I guess there’s a reason why we don’t go to parties like that, huh.”

“We’re too cool for them anyways.”

“So why are you here at…” Alex leaned towards the nightstand again, pulling the clock towards him. “Nine o’clock in the morning, Madeline, what are you trying to do to me?”

She sat up, reaching into her back pocket. “Well, first of all, here is your phone.” She handed him his iPhone, which looked even more beat up and scratched than normal. “You gave it to Isabelle, as a ‘token of your affection.’ And when she tried to tell you that it was yours, you got really upset and then you threw up on her.”

“I did what?”

“Well, on her shoes. Don’t worry she’s fine, I don’t think you traumatized her too bad. And second of all, my dad said we can go to the summer house at the lake for tonight and tomorrow because I got an A on my government test. And Isabelle like aced some huge midterm or something, so she is bringing her friends too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, so you’ll come?”

“Obviously.” Alex poked Madeline’s cheek until she smiled at him, pushing him away from her. “Like I would miss looking at all your sister’s hot friends.”

“Oh, that is sick.”

“You love me.”

It took Alex close to two hours to drag himself out of bed and to the grocery store with Leven and Madeline to go food shopping for the weekend. By the time he was ready to leave for the lake house, his mom had fully forgiven him, mostly because he had made his sisters mini pizzas for lunch.

Leven didn’t look all that much better than Alex, although she had had a lot more to drink than he did and he was starting to get a little embarrassed that this tiny blonde fairy of a girl could drink him under the table. But even still, Madeline had to pull over three times on the two hour drive to the lake so the two of them could throw up on the side of the highway.

It was the first time the lake house had been used since the fall, and it was a little musty, but as soon as Alex went around and opened up all the windows the breeze started rushing in and the house started smelling like fresh air, air so fresh you could drink it in instead of breathing it. Leven and Madeline started putting all the food away, quickly realizing that they should never let Alex and Leven do the shopping because there was a lot of food in there that Madeline did not remember putting in the cart.

“How many different kinds of Oreos do we really need, Alexander?” Madeline yelled to him where he was sitting outside on the porch, pretending that he wasn’t trying to sneak a smoke.

“They really shouldn’t make so many kinds!” he yelled back through the open window. “I literally didn’t have any choice! And you’ll be thanking me when you come downstairs in the middle of the night craving a strawberry ice cream Oreo or whatever the hell that is.”

“I think you have me confused with Isabelle, my darling boy.”

“Speaking of your hot sister, when are she and all her hot friends getting here?”

“Can you not?” Madeline threw a mini bag of pretzels out the window, hitting him in the side of the head. “She’s my baby sis, you can’t say that about her!”

“Did you know your baby sis has a tattoo?”

She snorted. “She’s got more than one, let me tell you.”

“Who’s got a what?” Leven was sprawled flat on the wooden porch floor, Alex’s snapback settled over her eyes.

“Nothing, Lev,” Alex said, leaning down to hand her the rest of his cigarette, which she took a few drags of and then stubbed out on the wood next to her.

“They should be getting here any minute,” Madeline said, picking the conversation back up again.

And speak of the devil… there was Isabelle, pulling up in her little red Smart Car with her three best friends stuffed in the backseat. She honked the horn a couple of times, a tiny little beep that perfectly suited her, and then they were piling out of the car, carrying duffel bags and backpacks and grocery bags. Alex stood up, popping his back a few times, before jumping down the porch stairs to help them.

“Don’t even think about it,” Madeline hissed at him, albeit good-naturedly as he followed Isabelle and her friends into the kitchen.

They made dinner and watched television and played cards and sat out by the lake, talking and laughing and smoking (in Alex’s case). They watched the sun go down and the stars come out until everyone got tired and went up to bed. Leven and Madeline shared a room, the same room they had always shared, ever since Alex and Leven had started coming up to the cabin with the Fuhrmans before they could really even walk. Isabelle and her best friend Jackie were in the room next to hers with Amandla and Willow in the room Alex usually slept in. Which meant Alex was banished to the attic.

And he couldn’t sleep, which didn’t make any sense at all considering the fact that he had been up until four this morning and Madeline had woken him up at nine.

So he went down to the lake, settling himself into one of the deck chairs the girls had forced him to drag down there for dinner.

When Alex thought of his two best friends, his second thought was almost always of the lake house. This was their place – it had always been. Everything about it was theirs – that huge tree behind the house where Leven had fallen off a branch after Alex had dared her to climb up there, and they had to come running to her rescue; the lake itself, where they had almost drowned countless times, pushing each other off the dock and tubing around the lake and bugging Madeline’s dad until he set up the water trampoline; the upper balcony, where they had all drank for the first time and smoked pot for the first time and grown up together. And Isabelle had always been there too – running to get Mama Fuhrman after Leven had fallen out of the tree; sitting in the back of the boat laughing hysterically with her sister as Leven and Alex screamed at Madeline’s dad to slow the boat down because they didn’t want to die on the tube, they were too young to die and the lake water was too cold to swim in; promising not to tell on the golden trio after she caught them on the balcony and they bribed her with leftover Thin Mints to keep whatever secret they were hiding. Isabelle was as much a part of Alex growing up as Natalie and Sophia were in Madeline and Leven’s lives.

“Hey, stranger. You’re in my spot.”

Alex looked up, Isabelle blocking out the moon from where she was standing. “Oh, this is your spot? Funny, I don’t see your name on it.”

“Really.” Isabelle smiled, leaning down so her hair brushed over Alex’s shoulder. Yep, he could remember why he had been so obsessed with Christmas last night. “You must not be looking hard enough, cause it’s right here.” And sure enough, Isabelle’s name was written on Alex’s deck chair in what looked like purple permanent marker and the scrawl of a third grader. “And also, it’s my house so nice try.”

“Well, I’m lucky enough that you’re letting me stay here then, huh?”

“You’re nice to look at.” Isabelle shrugged, pulling her blanket around her and sitting down in the chair next to him. “So what are you doing out here?”

"Couldn’t sleep. Your sister shoved me in the attic, and it’s a little dusty up there. As in I think I have asthma now.”

“Nobody ever goes up there. Clearly.”

“So I am incredibly sorry about last night. I was told that I might have… vomited in your general direction.” Alex was glad it was dark out because he knew he was incredibly red.

“Yes you did. But it’s okay…I didn’t even like those shoes in the first place.”

“I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

“Okay, I’ll think of something.”

Isabelle reached under her blanket, pulling out one of the baby tubs of Ben and Jerry’s. “Want some?”

“Is this the first time it’s been away from its mother?” Alex laughed, tugging the ice cream out of her hand. It could literally fit in his palm.

Isabelle grabbed it back. “We couldn’t decide what kind we wanted. So we just got them all.”

“You know, I tried that too with the Oreos. And then your sister yelled at me.”

Isabelle shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, emptying half the container in one bite. “She can be kind of scary sometimes.”

And that was really all it took for Alex to realize that sitting outside at midnight with Madeline’s younger sister might not be the best idea, especially after his little performance at Liam’s last night. Madeline didn’t get really genuinely mad at Alex that often, but when she did, she was no picnic.

"Uh, yeah.” Alex stood up, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot and trying to figure out how to politely extricate himself from the situation at hand. “I’m gonna try to go back to sleep, so I’ll… I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay?” It was definitely more of a question than an answer, and Alex didn’t look back as he walked towards the house, didn’t see that Isabelle’s eyes were trained on his back the entire way.

* * *

“Do you all have your walkie-talkies?” Madeline was in charge, as usual, of the motley crew spread out in front of her – Alex and four other girls not counting Madeline.

“I mean, can’t we just use our cell phones?”

“This is a mission, Alexander.”

“Come on, Alex!”

“Goddammit, Alex.”

Alex pinched Leven in the side and shot a look in Isabelle’s direction. Both girls were giggling uncontrollably, and Amandla and Willow weren’t holding up any better.

“Okay.” Madeline waited for her friends to stop laughing before she continued. “If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be out of there by 2300 hours.”

“Wait, oh my God!” Alex spoke up again, literally unable to help himself even though he knew Madeline would kill him after this was over. “I don’t have my flak jacket! I didn’t realize we were going into a combat zone!” He turned to Amandla, laughing hysterically next to him. “Stenberg, do you have your flak jacket?”

She shook her head wordlessly, unable to speak through her giggles. Leven snorted into her palm, trying to hide it from Madeline.

Madeline had been planning this for days. It all started at Liam’s house two weeks ago when Alex had been screaming about gingerbread. Apparently Liam had heard them and come up to Madeline at school on Monday and then there was kind of a blurry patch that Madeline wouldn’t explain to anyone. So all Alex and Leven really knew was that Madeline was pissed and Liam was about to pay for whatever he had done.

The good news was that Madeline didn’t really get upset about anything – she was way too focused on Yale to get all that stressed out over some stupid high school boy. But she didn’t like feeling stupid.

“Before we leave, does anyone have to go to the bathroom?”

“Sir, no, sir!” Isabelle chirped, and Leven chimed in.

“Alex?”

“No, Mads. Do you?”

She just rolled her eyes at her friends, pushing them one by one into Isabelle’s car. “Remind me again why we are taking the world’s tiniest car on our mission?”

“Because it literally makes no noise, obvi.”

Alex leaned over the passenger seat where Leven was sitting, her knees propped up on the dash. “I absolutely do not think so, Lev. Get in the back.”

She looked up at him, eyes lined dark with kohl and bright blonde hair stuffed in one of Madeline’s beanies. “I will not.”

“Leven, if you do not get out of my seat this second, I will physically remove you, I swear to God.”

“You get in the back! I was here first!”

“On the planet? I don’t think so. Get out of my seat this second.”

“Let Isabelle decide. It’s her car, and she’s gonna pick me because girl power and also she likes me way more than she likes you.”

“We are not letting Isabelle decide, because you are getting out of my seat this second.”

But of course Leven didn’t listen because she never listened to Alex, and he was forced to resort to drastic measures, grabbing her around the waist and dragging her out of the car, depositing her in the backseat next to Isabelle, ignoring her shrieks.

By the time he buckled himself into the passenger seat, Madeline was glaring at him, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. “Are you two done?”

Alex glared back. “Just go.”

Madeline spent the entire ride to Liam’s house making sure her friends knew the plan. Isabelle was on her phone, Amandla and Willow were changing the song incessantly, and Leven was annoying the hell out of Alex by poking the back of his neck until he turned around and flicked her in the throat.

They slowed down as they pulled onto Liam’s street, cutting the lights. And less than ten minutes later, they were running back to Isabelle’s car, Alex jumping behind the wheel because he was the first one there, and they sped off, leaving behind Liam’s bright red Mustang covered in splattered eggs and the words “Suck it!” spelled out in shaving cream and toilet paper.

Not the most original plan, but Madeline really knew how to get the job done.

And it would have gone absolutely perfectly if Alex hadn’t left Isabelle behind.

But to be fair, she had been the lookout which meant that she wasn’t actually at the car with the rest of them and when Madeline had hissed “time to go!” there was a chance she hadn’t heard that. But clearly that meant it was Madeline’s fault, not Alex. Except Alex was the one who sped off without her.

“Are you kidding me?” Isabelle’s voice was loud over the speaker of Madeline’s phone. “Did you seriously leave me stranded in the middle of Liam Hemsworth’s street? Because I have to inform you, I am not impressed with your Mission: Impossible skills. I am not impressed one bit.”

“Do you think its weird that we all call him Liam Hemsworth? Like why don’t we just call him Liam?” Leven mused from the backseat.

“Can you please turn around and come get me?”

“No, Isabelle, I am going to keep driving back to your house in your car without you,” Alex shot back. “Yes, I already turned around, so can you please calm down now?”

She was positively fuming when Alex pulled up next where she was standing on the sidewalk, and she ordered Madeline to get out of the front seat because “this is my car and I’m pissed at all of you!”

The next day in the senior lounge, Liam eyed the golden trio very suspiciously, but he didn’t say anything, which was probably a good thing because if Alex got in another fight, he would probably be suspended.

That theory was tested out later in the day when he was walking to Modern Literature with Madeline and he saw Isabelle standing at her locker with her boyfriend, some douchebag junior whose name Alex had never bothered to learn. They were clearly arguing, loud enough for Alex and Leven and everyone else in the hallway to hear, and as they heard Isabelle shriek “I’m just at a loss as to why you think you could cheat on me without me finding out!” Leven muttered oh balls and set off down the hallway, dragging Alex behind her.

“Is,” she hissed, practically smashing Isabelle into her locker as she slid up next to her. “Is, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Isabelle snapped. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Come on, Is,” Alex mumbled, closing his fingers over Isabelle’s arm to try to guide her away before more people noticed what was going on.

“Uh…” Douchebag stepped forward, pushing Alex out of the way to step between him and Isabelle. “Look, man. Can you back off please? We’re trying to have a conversation.”

“Oh really? You’re trying to have a conversation? News flash, I really don’t care about your conversation, and Isabelle is coming with us.”

“Alex, don’t,” Leven hissed, trying to pull Isabelle away from where she had attacked herself to Alex’s back. “Remember what Mama Ludwig said! No more fighting even if people are really stupid.”

“Isabelle, don’t you dare walk away.” Douchebag tried reaching around Alex to grab Isabelle, but he quickly learned that was a mistake when Alex shoved him backwards into the lockers with a huge crash. Everyone in the hallway got really quiet, and Alex was really lucky there were no teachers hanging about.

“You will not touch her again,” Alex said, his voice low. “Got it?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, pulling Leven and Isabelle with him, herding them back to the senior lounge. They were already late for Modern Lit and it was Madeline’s free period, so there was really no point in going to class when there was a situation to deal with.

“Alex? Lev… Isabelle? What the hell are you guys doing here?” Madeline looked up from her Physics homework, closing her textbook with a bang.

“We had a situation.” Leven pulled Isabelle over to the couch at the table where Madeline was sitting, and Alex settled himself across from the two of them, pulling his Lit homework out of his backpack so that it would look like he was busy if a teacher walked in. Man, this school would miss them.

“What kind of situation?”

“A douchebag situation,” Alex muttered.

“Well, can you explain that please?”

Isabelle hadn’t said a word since they had interrupted the fight, and she definitely wasn’t talking now, so Alex and Leven took turns explaining what little they actually knew.

“Is,” Madeline said softly as soon as they were finished, “Is, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Isabelle’s voice was steady, and she looked around like she was really noticing the room for the first time. “Wow, your guys’ lounge is nice. No wonder you skip class so much.”

“We do not skip class, Little Fuhrman,” Alex protested, but the mere fact that he and Leven were even there right now negated that statement. “Well, not usually. And you shouldn’t either.”

“I just want to go home.”

“Alex.” Madeline leaned across the table, putting her hand on his arm and giving him the puppy dog eyes that she always brought out when she needed a favor. “Can you please take her home? I’ve got a test last hour that I really can’t miss.”

Isabelle looked up at him hopefully, and there was no way he could say no to either one of the Fuhrmans.

“Wow,” Isabelle said when they were standing in the student lot next to Alex’s white Ducati that he had gotten for his eighteenth birthday. “Wow, that is a motorcycle.”

“Yep.” He nodded.

“You want me to get on that.”

“Yep, I do.” He reached under the seat, pulling out his shiny black helmet. “Put this on.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m a good driver.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket, the bike starting with a roar. He slung his leg over the bike, patting the seat behind him. “Get on.”

“Behind you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“What am I supposed to hang onto?”

Alex reached around behind him, steadying the bike with one leg on the ground, and grabbed one of Isabelle’s arms, wrapping it around his waist. “There,” he called back to her, walking them out of the spot and accelerating out of the parking lot.

It was a long way to the Fuhrman house – they lived in the same big, gated development next to the reservoir that Alex and Leven both did, at the edge of town and about fifteen minutes away from the high school. It was enough time for Alex to relax, feeling Isabelle’s arms tight around his waist and her breath on his back.

When he pulled up in front of Isabelle’s house, he turned the bike off, filling the air with a deafening silence. He jumped off, helping Isabelle down and walking her to the front door. “Are your parents going to be pissed about this?”

“About the bike or the skipping school?” She smirked.

“The school. The bike. Both, I guess.”

“Nah, they’re not home. My dad’s on call and my mom is prosecuting night court tonight, so they probably won’t even be home until tomorrow morning.” She paused, biting her lip and clearly thinking over her options. “Do you want to come in?”

Alex didn’t even hesitate. “Is it okay if I do?”

“Yeah, of course.”

He followed her into the house, the wide entryway opening up over their heads and letting the sun stream in the windows. Alex had been there hundreds of times, but never with Isabelle. It was a weird feeling. But the way he felt about Isabelle was weird too… like he had never really noticed that she was there until one day she just kind of hit him full force.

“So are you doing okay?” Alex asked when they were sitting on the couch in the living room, the television on in front of them. “That was… kind of intense.”

“I’m fine.” Isabelle rolled her eyes. “He was a dick, and I knew that the entire time. I was just hoping he’d… you know, prove me wrong.”

“You can do so much better than that, Is.” Alex put his Coke down on the coffee table, making sure he used a coaster so Madeline wouldn’t freak out at him about it later. “You’re gorgeous and brilliant and special. You don’t need some asshole to treat you like shit just because he’s there.”

“You sound like Madeline.”

“Well, she’s given me a version of that speech like a hundred times. But it’s true, Isabelle. You can do better. You deserve better.”

There was a long pause as they both turned their attention back to the television. It was only one o’clock – Madeline wouldn’t be home until four at the earliest, and Alex was starting to feel kind of awkward, like he was intruding on her territory or something.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about it. He’d been thinking about it a lot actually, ever since Liam Hemsworth’s party. He could have kissed Isabelle that night. She could have kissed him. He kind of thought she was going to kiss him, and then she didn’t. And then he threw up on her. But then there had been that moment at the lake, and then again at her house after they had got back from pranking Liam. And something in his chest had snapped when he saw her with Douchebag today at her locker. At first, he wondered if he was just being protective. He had always seen Isabelle as his little sister, on the same plane as Natalie and Sophia. But was that because he was just protective or because he was scared of Madeline?

There was no telling what Madeline would do to him honestly, if he even entertained the idea of dating her little sister. Leven used to call her Mama Bear when they started high school – she was the first one to start yelling when someone was being an ass to her friends or her sister. And she definitely hadn’t grown out of with age.

But she couldn’t be mad at Alex, could she?

It’s not like it mattered at this point anyway. He hadn’t done anything, and Isabelle sure hadn’t done anything. He wasn’t even sure if Isabelle liked him. She probably just saw him as her big sister’s dumb best friend. And if that douchebag that she had been dating was her type, then Alex definitely wasn’t.

At least, that was the thought running through his mind when she leaned over, pulling herself onto his lap so that she was looming over him, and kissed him.

And he kissed her back, obviously. He wasn’t stupid. She was so tiny he could barely even feel her on his lap, and his hand could span the entire length of her side, fingers fitting into the slots of her ribs like they were supposed to be there. She trailed her hand up his chest, gripping the back of his neck, and all he could think of for a few seconds was Christmas, except this was so much better than Christmas.

“What are you doing?” he murmured, pulling back for air.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Isabelle bit her lip, looking a little hesitant, like maybe she took Alex’s question to mean that he didn’t really want her to be doing that.

“Madeline,” was the only thing he got out before he was leaning forward, attaching his mouth to hers again and pushing her down onto her back, hovering over her, balancing himself on his arms so that he wouldn’t hurt her. They spent a few more minutes doing that until Alex pulled back again. “She’s gonna get mad.”

“Do you really need to think about my sister while we’re doing this? She’s not going to be home for hours anyway.”

“I know, but—” Isabelle cut him off.

At first, there was a whole lot going through Alex’s mind – Madeline is going to kill me, but holy hell this is great – until eventually he pushed it all away so everything was just Isabelle.

Or at least it was until Alex felt his phone go off in his back pocket. He rolled away from Isabelle, pulling it out and thumbing the screen to see the text. It was from Madeline: **On my way home, was Isabelle doing okay when you dropped her off?**

He quickly stood up, ruffling his hair up with his hand. “I’d better go,” he said to Isabelle, walking backwards towards the front door and dragging her along with him. “Your sister is on her way home.”

Isabelle smiled, spinning around to lean against the front door so he couldn’t open it. “Okay. But this was okay, right?”

Alex propped his arm up above her head, essentially boxing her in. “Hell yeah,” he said softly, leaning down to kiss her one more time before slipping out the door and jumping on his bike, taking off down the street before Madeline pulled up a few minutes later.

As he was laying in bed that night, his phone went off and when he looked at the screen he saw that the incoming text was from “Little Fuhrman.” He’d had her number in his phone for ages, but he’d never had a need to text her before now.

**I forgot to say thanks. For what you did for me today at school.**

**No problem, little Fuhr. Anytime.**

**So next time I catch my asshole boyfriend cheating on me, you’re gonna break up the fight?**

**Of course :)**

She didn’t reply back, and Alex figured she had just fallen asleep – it was one in the morning, and they had school tomorrow. Apparently, Madeline was still up though because a half an hour later, she was calling him. A bolt of panic instantly shot through his stomach. She knew. Oh, she was going to yell, and Alex really hated it when Madeline yelled at him. It was worse than when he got in trouble with his own parents. He answered the call quickly, his hand shaking a little.

“Mads?”

“Hey,” she whispered. Okay, so she didn’t sound mad. But Madeline could be really tricky when she wanted to be. “What’s up?”

“Ah… nothing. Why are you up so late?”

“I was thinking we need to get some revenge on that stupid kid who screwed over my sister. You in?”

Alex only needed to think about it for a second. “I’m in.”


End file.
